Since opening in 1931, the Black Hawk Bridge has been synonymous with the Mississippi River town of Lansing, but the span was closed last fall, then demolished, and construction is still underway on a new structure. The steel truss bridge served the tiny bluff communities of northeast Iowa and western Wisconsin, but now residents are having to cope with long-term detours, and Main Street businesses, like the riverside bar and grill run by Justin Shepard, are surviving.
The Iowa and Wisconsin Departments of Transportation are working together on the project, and Clayton Burke is the project manager. The bridge rose above the river with a skeleton profile and a steep pitch. The open grate decking clattered with crossing cars, earning it the nickname The Singing Bridge. Engineering has changed plenty in the last century, and Burke says the Iowa D-O-T proposed a standard arch bridge, which is more efficient and cost-effective.
The nearest river crossing involves a 50-mile detour and after appealing to Governor Kim Reynolds, Lansing got a ferry serving up to 800 cars a day, while the bridge used to carry some two-thousand daily. The project cost is approaching 200-million dollars to serve a region of less than ten-thousand residents, and the ferry adds roughly 20-million dollars to the project cost. To the residents, though, the bridge is worth it. Lansing Mayor Mike Verdon (VIR-din) says their passion has been the project’s driving force.
The new bridge is set to open in the spring of 2027, but the Iowa D-O-T won’t be done with Lansing yet, as it will move on to Main Street, which will be closed for redesign and repaving in 2028.
